Denton County Living Well Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 26

OurCalling

By Melanie Hess

“T

hey all deserve to be homeless. There are
plenty of service providers. You’re a bum––a
drug addict. Why don’t you get help?” are
common phrases about the homeless that
Wayne Walker, Executive Director of the
nonprofit organization OurCalling in South Dallas, is tired
of hearing. “Honestly, that’s the standard stereotype––A
beard, a backpack, and a criminal record,” says Walker.

Not a Shelter, Meeting at the Margins

«In reality,» Walker explains, «most of our homeless friends
have nowhere else to go.»

He compares a shelter to a hospital, by explaining that
people don’t ever want to go to the hospital, and when
they do, the doctors want to fix them so they never have to
come back.

With 67 foster brothers and sister who were at some point
placed in his childhood family’s home, Walker learned
many of the world’s harsh realities at a very young age.
“I grew up with brothers and sisters who had lived through
hell,” he says.
Eventually battling his own addiction and depression,
Walker’s life took a swift turn upward when he found his
faith during his college years.
When he and his wife moved to Dallas for seminary after
college, the long-term plan was to move overseas. However, it wasn’t too long before Walker realized he not only
had passion for, but a lot in common with, the individuals
living on Dallas’ streets.
“I started going downtown and feeding the homeless 15
years ago,» he recalls. «And it feels like yesterday.»
What started as meals and fellowship with eight-to-10 volunteers nearly two decades ago has grown to a staff of 11
and thousands of volunteers at OurCalling, an organization aiming to serve Dallas’ unsheltered homeless.
«You realize pretty quickly that people need a lot more
than food,» Walker says. «You watch people starving, and
they get fed, and they’re still starving because their biggest
needs are not being met.»
Walker explains that while many organizations in Dallas
serve the homeless, very few focus on the unsheltered.
“I would say 80 percent of the homeless population is unsheltered,” he estimated. “And I would say that because I
have records, photos, information, and faces of friends that
I’ve shaken hands with.”

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DENTON COUNTY Living Well Magazine | FALL 2015

So what exactly then does OurCalling do, and how does
it work?
“We don’t tell anyone no,” Walker says. “We don’t require
IDs. We don’t check backgrounds. We care about the individual, not their past mistakes.”

Shelters, he explains, function in a similar way.
“Nobody wants to ever have to go to a shelter, but when
they do, they want to create this conducive environment so
they can heal you, and you don’t have to come back,” he
says.
Walker notes that OurCalling’s end goal is entirely different.
“We want them to transform from the person receiving the
services to the person that’s giving the services,” he says.
Walker describes a woman who came in as a victim of
domestic violence, who was severely abused the previous
night. One of OurCalling’s staff members accompanied her
to a hospital to help her get stabilized. Prior to turning to
the hospital, OurCalling’s staff reached out to each domestic violence center in Dallas, all of which were full.
“One day, we want that woman back here loving on other
women who are going through the same thing,” he stresses. “We wouldn’t’t have known the pain she was going
through except for some of the women in our discipleship
program who have been through similar circumstances (domestic violence, drug addiction, prostitution, etc.) and who
are now helping to serve with us. They were able to quickly
identify and connect to her.”
But what may serve as a surprise for some, Walker says it’s
his love for the homeless that makes him an advocate for
not handing out cash.
“When you give money